CVE-2023-21768
Published: 10 January 2023
Summary
CVE-2023-21768 is a high-severity Untrusted Pointer Dereference (CWE-822) vulnerability in Microsoft Windows 11. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, ranked in the top 1.1% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis
CVE-2023-21768 is an elevation of privilege vulnerability in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock. It carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8 and is associated with CWE-822. The flaw permits a local attacker to obtain elevated privileges on affected Windows systems.
An attacker with existing local access and low privileges can exploit the issue without user interaction, resulting in full compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability on the target host.
Microsoft publishes mitigation guidance for this vulnerability through its Security Response Center update guide at the referenced URL. The current EPSS score stands at 0.7442 after reaching a peak of 0.7683.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-25935
Vulnerability details
Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
No mitigating controls mapped yet. The per-CVE control annotator has not reached this CVE.